Hi all,
Im trying to optimize my web site but nothing seems to change when I check my position for my key words in Google. I up date the content regularly, a bit every few days. Tagged all pics with key word rich phrases, tried using page speed, although this offers advice i cant find how to carry out many of the suggestions as there seems to be a lot of assumed knowledge, which I dont have!!
Does any one have any ideas or knows of good books worth buying, id prefer book as I can highlight bits add notes and refer back easily.
Many thanks
SEO headaches!!
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gardennorm
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:05 pm
- Location: Skopelos island, Greece
- Contact:
SEO headaches!!
Skopelos villas - Holiday villas to rent in Greece
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
seo
Hello gardennorm
There are several useful books you can find as W H Smith or any decent book shop:
Web Marketing For Dummies by Jan Zimmerman
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies by Peter Kent
Get to #1 on Google in easy steps by Ben Norman
When you new to something I found a combination of these books does help.
Steve
There are several useful books you can find as W H Smith or any decent book shop:
Web Marketing For Dummies by Jan Zimmerman
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies by Peter Kent
Get to #1 on Google in easy steps by Ben Norman
When you new to something I found a combination of these books does help.
Steve
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
"As for my amnesia, I've had it as long as I can remember"
Real name: Steve
Gender: Male
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
"As for my amnesia, I've had it as long as I can remember"
Real name: Steve
Gender: Male
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gardennorm
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:05 pm
- Location: Skopelos island, Greece
- Contact:
Hi Steve,
Many thanks for your recommendations
Neil
Many thanks for your recommendations
Neil
Skopelos villas - Holiday villas to rent in Greece
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
SEO changes fairly rapidly.
It is worth keeping an eye on :
http://www.webpronews.com
http://www.webmasterworld.com/home.htm
http://www.gforums.net
Peter
It is worth keeping an eye on :
http://www.webpronews.com
http://www.webmasterworld.com/home.htm
http://www.gforums.net
Peter
It's hard isn't it 
I've done a lot of reading about SEO recently and what's very obvious is that there is no simple answer or short cut to getting a good page rank. One thing that is important though is that you take it logically step by step.
First step is to make sure your site is well laid out, accessible to humans and the bots, is content rich and regularly updated.
With regard to reading up on SEO, Essar has given some good advice. I'll add another (free) resource: have a look at Hobo SEO and download their free e-book.
HTH
I've done a lot of reading about SEO recently and what's very obvious is that there is no simple answer or short cut to getting a good page rank. One thing that is important though is that you take it logically step by step.
First step is to make sure your site is well laid out, accessible to humans and the bots, is content rich and regularly updated.
- -Your low page speed score won't be helping but I doubt it's the major issue. As I've said in your other thread, you should be able to find a Joomla plugin which will address most of the issues reported.
-When you update your site, are you notifying Google of the changes or leaving it to be discovered? I can't find a sitemap.xml file off your main directory - that's a must. Also, why do you have a redirect to site/home?
-If you're going to use meta keywords (they're not that useful) put them in the order of importance. So, from your meta keywords, I'm assuming that "holiday accommodation skopelos" is your key phrase as it's the first in the list? Or is it "skopelos villas" which is later in the list, appears in the page url, and is prominent in the page - it's not the H1 heading though so Google will note that. What I'm saying is that you need to be consistent in your key phrases: place them in the page url, H1 page title and at least once ( but not too many times) in the page content - and in the meta keywords if you want to.
-What are people searching for when they find your site (Google analytics will help you there)? Use that info to tune your keywords/phrases
-Be realistic about your key words/phrases. Taking "holiday accommodation skopelos" as an example, you're top of page 4 and the previous 3 pages are all big listing sites. So you're competing with them. Maybe 1st page for a less popular key phrase would be better?
With regard to reading up on SEO, Essar has given some good advice. I'll add another (free) resource: have a look at Hobo SEO and download their free e-book.
HTH
Last edited by gam on Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As gam said, you didn't mention whether you've done any link building i.e. getting other websites to link to yours. Without doing this your rankings are unlikely to change.
Regarding books, I read one called "Get to the Top on Google" which was pretty straight forward in it's explanation, but that was many months ago and it might be a little dated now.
I found some good suggestion in this blog on PromoteMyPlace regarding link building for holiday rentals specifically -
http://www.promotemyplace.com/blog/arti ... ur-website
You need to be prepared to put a bit of time and effort into it though.
You also need to make sure the keywords you choose are not too competitive, otherwise you will be fighting a losing battle.
Good luck with it.
Regarding books, I read one called "Get to the Top on Google" which was pretty straight forward in it's explanation, but that was many months ago and it might be a little dated now.
I found some good suggestion in this blog on PromoteMyPlace regarding link building for holiday rentals specifically -
http://www.promotemyplace.com/blog/arti ... ur-website
You need to be prepared to put a bit of time and effort into it though.
You also need to make sure the keywords you choose are not too competitive, otherwise you will be fighting a losing battle.
Good luck with it.
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gardennorm
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:05 pm
- Location: Skopelos island, Greece
- Contact:
Thanks everyone,
Im a novice and many of the things mentioned I just dont know about.
Ive worked on my page speed optimizing image sizes, but im struggling to resolve other issues as I dont understand how to fix them, eg ive researched setting expiry dates but can not for the life of me find out where to add the code. My problem is that there seems to be an assumed level of knowledge that I just dont have.
Ill down load a site map for joomla.
When I set up my site I renamed it Skopelos as I was fiddling with a couple of versions, now I dont know how to remove this redirect.
Re back links, ive joined other forums and written to other webmasters with a page rank high than mine (not that difficult) and in the same business category, but no replies.
Ill re arrange my key words as i did not know the order of them was important.
Just the tips you guys have given here are incredibly helpful, ive spent hours stumbling in the dark!!
Once again many thanks to everyone
Im a novice and many of the things mentioned I just dont know about.
Ive worked on my page speed optimizing image sizes, but im struggling to resolve other issues as I dont understand how to fix them, eg ive researched setting expiry dates but can not for the life of me find out where to add the code. My problem is that there seems to be an assumed level of knowledge that I just dont have.
Ill down load a site map for joomla.
When I set up my site I renamed it Skopelos as I was fiddling with a couple of versions, now I dont know how to remove this redirect.
Re back links, ive joined other forums and written to other webmasters with a page rank high than mine (not that difficult) and in the same business category, but no replies.
Ill re arrange my key words as i did not know the order of them was important.
Just the tips you guys have given here are incredibly helpful, ive spent hours stumbling in the dark!!
Once again many thanks to everyone
Skopelos villas - Holiday villas to rent in Greece
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
It can be confusing so if you have specific questions - ask away and someone, no doubt, will be able to help.
Not sure why, but me keep going on about getting a Joomla plugin to help with your site speed issues isn't registering. You've taken some of the issues away by scaling those large images but there is still plenty to do. I suspect the chief culprit is the fairly considerable amount of javascript you have. This needs to be compressed/minified so it downloads and runs faster. There will be a plugin which does that and more. I don't use Joomla so can't offer advice based on personal experience but one of these Joomla plugins would be a good place to start. Improving your site speed can only help but in itself will not work miracles on your page ranking.
I can't help with the redirect issue but maybe ask on the Joomla help forum?
Getting a sitemap.xml is a good start. When you've done that go to Google Webmaster tools, get the verification code for your site and load it, get the site verified then tell Google that you have a sitemap.xml file and where it is. Whenever you make changes to the site, rebuild and then resubmit the sitemap.
Have you sorted out Google analytics (Joomla plugins here)? You'll need it to get your keywords right and see how your SEO is performing.
Arranging the order of your meta keywords (technically the right thing to do but Google doesn't care about them anyway) is of minor importance compared to getting the right keywords and putting them in the right places in your page url. page title and page content. But, relying only on keyword SEO will not get you ahead of competitors using those same keywords that have more content, more and better quality links and paid for advertising. Use Google analytics to find the best compromise between keyword search frequency and popularity. Better to be on the first page for 100 searches than on the 4th page for 1000 searches.
I'm not too surprised that other webmasters aren't interested in putting a link to your site on theirs - would you be if the roles were reversed? Posting on popular blogs will be helpful (change that anchor text) as will other listing sites, directories etc. Don't be tempted to buy links though. And with listing sites, don't just copy chunks of text from your site - write new copy.
Not sure why, but me keep going on about getting a Joomla plugin to help with your site speed issues isn't registering. You've taken some of the issues away by scaling those large images but there is still plenty to do. I suspect the chief culprit is the fairly considerable amount of javascript you have. This needs to be compressed/minified so it downloads and runs faster. There will be a plugin which does that and more. I don't use Joomla so can't offer advice based on personal experience but one of these Joomla plugins would be a good place to start. Improving your site speed can only help but in itself will not work miracles on your page ranking.
I can't help with the redirect issue but maybe ask on the Joomla help forum?
Getting a sitemap.xml is a good start. When you've done that go to Google Webmaster tools, get the verification code for your site and load it, get the site verified then tell Google that you have a sitemap.xml file and where it is. Whenever you make changes to the site, rebuild and then resubmit the sitemap.
Have you sorted out Google analytics (Joomla plugins here)? You'll need it to get your keywords right and see how your SEO is performing.
Arranging the order of your meta keywords (technically the right thing to do but Google doesn't care about them anyway) is of minor importance compared to getting the right keywords and putting them in the right places in your page url. page title and page content. But, relying only on keyword SEO will not get you ahead of competitors using those same keywords that have more content, more and better quality links and paid for advertising. Use Google analytics to find the best compromise between keyword search frequency and popularity. Better to be on the first page for 100 searches than on the 4th page for 1000 searches.
I'm not too surprised that other webmasters aren't interested in putting a link to your site on theirs - would you be if the roles were reversed? Posting on popular blogs will be helpful (change that anchor text) as will other listing sites, directories etc. Don't be tempted to buy links though. And with listing sites, don't just copy chunks of text from your site - write new copy.
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gardennorm
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:05 pm
- Location: Skopelos island, Greece
- Contact:
Hi Gam,
Many thanks for your quick reply.
Sorry for not picking up on the page speed issue, ill look at joomla extensions.
Ive just added a site map and registered it in Google web master.
I have google analytics installed, just need to learn how to use it!!
Re key words, ive used a keyword tool to find good ones and have looked to see how competitive they are, I was also advised to take on a long tail key word phrase.
At the moment it feels a bit like standing in a tunnel with things flying at me at 200mph, with absolutely no idea of how to slow them down and prioritize them.
I apologize if im missing things or asking stupid questions but you cant believe how welcome your help is.
Once again many thanks
Many thanks for your quick reply.
Sorry for not picking up on the page speed issue, ill look at joomla extensions.
Ive just added a site map and registered it in Google web master.
I have google analytics installed, just need to learn how to use it!!
Re key words, ive used a keyword tool to find good ones and have looked to see how competitive they are, I was also advised to take on a long tail key word phrase.
At the moment it feels a bit like standing in a tunnel with things flying at me at 200mph, with absolutely no idea of how to slow them down and prioritize them.
I apologize if im missing things or asking stupid questions but you cant believe how welcome your help is.
Once again many thanks
Skopelos villas - Holiday villas to rent in Greece
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
No need to apologise and I'm very happy to help - I'm a great believer in "paying it forward" so hopefully you'll help others when you can
Getting the right keywords balance is tough and I don't claim to be an expert. Sounds like you've made a good start though.
In case you haven't picked up on the anchor text thing, you will find it advantageous to use your selected keyword phrases as the anchor text not your site url. As an example, in your LMH signature you have www.aegeanescapes.com, whereas Skopelos Villas (or whatever your preferred keyword phrase is) would be better. Both point to your site but the latter adds the weight of your keywords and Google will note that. When you add your link on other sites/blogs, use different anchor text (using your keywords) for added benefit rather than the same anchor text every time.
EDIT: just noticed you've changed your signature. Make Skopelos Villas click-able like I have above, don't add it as a text byline.
Getting the right keywords balance is tough and I don't claim to be an expert. Sounds like you've made a good start though.
In case you haven't picked up on the anchor text thing, you will find it advantageous to use your selected keyword phrases as the anchor text not your site url. As an example, in your LMH signature you have www.aegeanescapes.com, whereas Skopelos Villas (or whatever your preferred keyword phrase is) would be better. Both point to your site but the latter adds the weight of your keywords and Google will note that. When you add your link on other sites/blogs, use different anchor text (using your keywords) for added benefit rather than the same anchor text every time.
EDIT: just noticed you've changed your signature. Make Skopelos Villas click-able like I have above, don't add it as a text byline.
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gardennorm
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:05 pm
- Location: Skopelos island, Greece
- Contact:
Gam your a star!!
Ive just picked up the joomla plugin you recommended.
I used jbetolo
My page speed has gone from 45% to 77% without even changing any of the settings.
Dont worry about spreading the word, I also believe in helping people out, not sure how helpful I can be at the moment but as I learn then who knows
Ive just picked up the joomla plugin you recommended.
I used jbetolo
My page speed has gone from 45% to 77% without even changing any of the settings.
Dont worry about spreading the word, I also believe in helping people out, not sure how helpful I can be at the moment but as I learn then who knows
Skopelos villas - Holiday villas to rent in Greece
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Er........ actually right now you're being very helpful in asking the questions that some of us don't even know to ask, IYSWIM! This stuff is all going to be useful to me shortly.gardennorm wrote: not sure how helpful I can be at the moment but as I learn then who knows
Oh, and thanks of course to gam and all the others who share their knowledge on this weird topic!
Just had a quick look at your redirect issue - that's a bit of a mess you've created there 
www.aegeanescapes.com(index.html) is basically an empty page other than having your Google analytics javascript and a meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0 statement which points to www.aegeanescapes.com/home i.e. the statement just says to instantly load the page at /home. That's not good for Google and I'd imagine messes up your Google analytics too.
/home carries your home page content but in the menu, the home button points to /skopelos. The content of that page is identical to /home. Again, bad for Google as you are delivering duplicate content (impacts page rank) and similarly will mess up your analytics.
There are other issues but those are the main ones.
As a minimum you should either change the meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0 statement to point at /skopelos allowing you to delete /home OR change your menu so that home points at /home allowing you to delete /skopelos.
If you feel confident enough to do it you should also have your main page content (either /home or /skopelos - whichever you're left with) in the index.html file in your public html root folder i.e add in the content to the empty www.aegeanescapes.com(index.html) page, remove the meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0 statement and rebuild the link structure so the whole site hangs off that page.
Before making any changes I'd recommend you back up your site so that you can do a restore if anything goes wrong.
BTW while I was looking at your site I tried to chat with you using the chat feature you have. It said you were online but after 10 minutes you hadn't responded. Had I been a potential customer I wouldn't have waited that long or bothered to come back to your site
www.aegeanescapes.com(index.html) is basically an empty page other than having your Google analytics javascript and a meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0 statement which points to www.aegeanescapes.com/home i.e. the statement just says to instantly load the page at /home. That's not good for Google and I'd imagine messes up your Google analytics too.
/home carries your home page content but in the menu, the home button points to /skopelos. The content of that page is identical to /home. Again, bad for Google as you are delivering duplicate content (impacts page rank) and similarly will mess up your analytics.
There are other issues but those are the main ones.
As a minimum you should either change the meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0 statement to point at /skopelos allowing you to delete /home OR change your menu so that home points at /home allowing you to delete /skopelos.
If you feel confident enough to do it you should also have your main page content (either /home or /skopelos - whichever you're left with) in the index.html file in your public html root folder i.e add in the content to the empty www.aegeanescapes.com(index.html) page, remove the meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0 statement and rebuild the link structure so the whole site hangs off that page.
Before making any changes I'd recommend you back up your site so that you can do a restore if anything goes wrong.
BTW while I was looking at your site I tried to chat with you using the chat feature you have. It said you were online but after 10 minutes you hadn't responded. Had I been a potential customer I wouldn't have waited that long or bothered to come back to your site
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gardennorm
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:05 pm
- Location: Skopelos island, Greece
- Contact:
Hi Gam, sorry for not replying to you through the chat facility, not sure why I missed it but I take your point as it could be very damaging.
Many thanks for your info about the redirect, to resolve it may be beyond me, Would this be something you could do, if so please contact me through my web site email and we can discuss it further.
Once again many thanks for your help, it really is invaluable.
Many thanks for your info about the redirect, to resolve it may be beyond me, Would this be something you could do, if so please contact me through my web site email and we can discuss it further.
Once again many thanks for your help, it really is invaluable.
Skopelos villas - Holiday villas to rent in Greece
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
Kayaking Greece - Sea kayaking holidays in Skopelos
For me to do it for you I'd need access to your site and your hosting so not a good idea.
Happy to talk you through what to do:
Later, if you're feeling confident:
Happy to talk you through what to do:
- Log into your hosting control panel
Choose "file explorer" or equivalent
Choose document root for aegeanescapes.com
In the main screen you'll see index.html
Click on it then click "edit"
Look for the line <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.aegeanescapes.com/home"/>
Replace "home" with "skopelos"
The line should now read <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.aegeanescapes.com/skopelos"/>
Save
Check your site is loading OK
Log out of your hosting
Go into Joomla
Delete the page titled "home" or if you prefer (and safer) change its status to noindex
Later, if you're feeling confident:
- Open up Joomla
Open the index and skopelos pages
Copy the skopelos content to the index page
Adjust your menu so the home button is linked to the index page
Adjust all other page links as needed
Save
Log into your hosting and access the index.html file and delete the line <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.aegeanescapes.com/skopelos"/>
Save
Check the site is working OK